5.3 PTR: Valley of Spirits Shut Down, Pet Battle Accuracy Changes

Today's newspost covers two very different types of battles on the PTR--Battlefield: Barrens and pet battle changes. Since our post last week on the Horde Rebellion, we've found a few more signs of strife in the area and it's now been included in the official 5.3 PTR Patch Notes. Most notably, the Valley of Spirits has been shut down in 5.3 under Kor'kron surveillance.

And if you prefer lighter combat, pet battles are getting some accuracy changes in 5.3 to keep combat from feeling repetitive.

Valley of Spirits Shut Down

The first time we previewed Orgrimmar on the PTR, Kor'kron guards were keeping the troll section of Orgrimmar on lockdown. But things have gotten even worse--they've terrified the NPCs to the point where the Valley of Spirits has been shut down. Players cannot access the Auction House, Banks, class trainers, profession trainers, and all vendors. (Suddenly, those pet snakes from Xan'tish like Black Kingsnake may be rare...)

In addition, the portal to Blasted Lands has been removed, and Vol'jin Loyalists now run through the streets shouting "Vol'jin lives! Rise up against Garrosh Hellscream! Today is de new dawn of de Horde!" before being killed by Kor'kron Overseers.

Here's what the Valley of Spirits NPCs have to say to you:

Class Trainer: Ya need trainin'? You picked a real inconvenient time to come pokin' through the Valley of Spirits.<Your trainer's voice lowers to a whisper>The Kor'kron watches our every move. Garrosh has the Valley of Spirits under his thumb. I could be killed if they saw me talkin' to you.Lucky for you, they don't ever see me. Lean in close, <name>. We gotta keep this on the down low.

Pet Battle Accuracy Changes in Patch 5.3

If you've thought that pet battles were getting a little repetitive, accuracy changes in Patch 5.3 should help. Fewer abilities in Patch 5.3 will have a 100% hit chance, and those that have a lower chance to hit will now hit harder--so using that ability will feel like a bit of a gamble. In addition, the base chance to dodge has been removed and the chance to miss high-level opponents will be reduced from 5% per level to 2% per level.

Greetings, trainers!

We wanted to take a moment to discuss some of the broad accuracy changes we’re making to Pet Battles in patch 5.3. The overarching goal behind these changes is to provide transparency to reduce the amount of uncontrolled randomness, where one miss often makes or breaks a match. Once patch 5.3 is live, you’ll see “hit chance” listed for all abilities, and this value will update if the pet is affected by abilities that increase or reduce the chance to hit.

In addition, we’ve removed the base 5% chance to dodge, and reduced the chance to miss opponents of higher levels from 5% per level to 2% per level. The end result should be that your attacks that should hit, will hit, and there’s greater incentive to get out there and fight higher-level pets for greater experience rewards.

In a turn-based game, randomness can be a lot of fun if handled correctly. Without a little randomness, the outcome of a match could be predicted to a high degree of certainty before the first swing, and that’s no fun. Randomness often works best when it is opt-in, often in exchange for greater attack power, longer duration, etc. In fact, many higher-damage battle pet abilities already had a reduced chance to hit, which will now be visible.

With the removal of the base dodge chance, we were left with a large number of abilities that now had a 100% hit chance. We’ve made a handful of minor modifications to some of these abilities, giving them greater damage in exchange for a reduced chance to hit. It’s worth noting that every battle pet type (e.g. Dragonkin) have at least one ability that hits 100% of the time, allowing you to opt-out of the randomness if you prefer a less risky strategy. (Check out the full list of basic abilities that have gained additional damage in exchange for reduced accuracy below.)

Finally, we’ve left the base 5% chance to gain a critical strike (for 1.5x damage), and +/- 10% damage variance on all abilities, at least for the time being. We believe that getting a crit generally feels good, and the damage variance is often enough to make a match a bit less predetermined without swinging the match heavily in one player’s favor.

We also wanted to thank the community for the great feedback we’ve gotten so far about Pet Battles. Keep it coming!

As noted earlier, the following basic attacks have had their damage increased by 5-15% and accuracy reduced by 5-15%:

Comments

Comment by Necromorta

Comment by grui

would be nice if blizzard would up the exp you get during pet battles to be more like what they were. I haven't done any real pet battling since they screwed us over with that move.

Comment by Thandion

on 2013/04/05 12:21:37

Out of curiosity (and apologies if I have missed it elsewhere), does this have any impact/bonuses for the Alliance? Is there any way for Alliance toons to experience this/get involved that we know of, or will it purely be all Horde? :)

Comment by perculia

on 2013/04/05 12:23:45

The linked article which covers the Northern Barrens should have stuff for the Alliance to do as well--things like killing elites and escorting caravans. In a future PTR build, Vol'jin should be around handing out some quests too.

The Orgrimmar stuff though seems like Horde-only content.

Comment by CaoimheX

on 2013/04/05 12:52:33

The Orgrimmar stuff though seems like Horde-only content.

That means I won't get to see any of it, but even so, this is a really nice game development - the world is more dynamic that it has been before, and it is changing without needing player interaction.

Comment by Tush

Comment by Rafekee

on 2013/04/05 13:41:48

So, what does this mean for people playing trolls?Will the Kor'kron say mean things to me as I walk through the city, or hold me at gunpoint?Cause that'd be kinda cool to be honest, wpuld make me feel more like a rebel.

Comment by perculia

on 2013/04/05 13:44:31

That would be pretty cool to check out! The characters I used were an orc and a blood elf.

Comment by thepandoraeffect

on 2013/04/05 13:47:18

Interesting lore addition. As soon as I finished the Dagger in the Dark scenario, I knew excrement was about to become corporeal. Just like history shows us; assassination tends to bring out the worst in us, to the point of a frothing, bloodthirsty monster. Though, to be fair, I've never really like Hellscream anyway.

Comment by Maulis425

on 2013/04/05 14:14:29

I can appreciate sticking with one faction, I'm a die-hard Horde myself; however in this case it might be worth it to create a Horde toon just to see it. I don't know how long this stuff will be live, I'd hate to see someone miss out on a once-ever event. Heck, maybe even make a Troll and see how it goes :)

Comment by Rankkor

on 2013/04/05 14:25:05

Check out Vale of Eternal Blossoms to see how the Horde have marred the zone, and hear the dialogue between Lorewalker Cho and Sunwalker Dezco.

Small correction here perculia. The dialog is between Taran Zhu and Sunwalker Dezco, not lorewalker cho.

Cho does the intros for the new scenarios.

Comment by perculia

on 2013/04/05 15:00:59

Ah right, will update that. Should have just copy/pasted my old post there.

Comment by wexorian

on 2013/04/05 15:05:23

They took his snakes that's hilarious, Rebel zones must be Spread litle more because there will be a big war in 1 zone then for rares especially alliance will hunt em also.

Comment by Siella

on 2013/04/05 15:27:51

Dominatrix Sylvanas gets my vote for Warchief, nothing like a super hot undead chick with an intoxicating sultry voice at the helm.....woot!

ps - the Orgrimmer stuff should be Horde only, you allies go play elsewhere......

Comment by Interest

on 2013/04/05 15:31:22

If you've thought that pet battles were getting a little repetitive, accuracy changes in Patch 5.3 should help. Fewer abilities in Patch 5.3 will have a 100% hit chance, and those that have a lower chance to hit will now hit harder--so using that ability will feel like a bit of a gamble. In addition, the base chance to dodge has been removed and the chance to miss high-level opponents will be reduced from 5% per level to 2% per level.

Sadface.

Also, I hope this Valley of Spirits shutdown thing only lasts until the end of MoP (probably will). Till then, time to buy some snakes.

Comment by hellos2478

on 2013/04/05 16:02:14

This game be really changin', mon.

Comment by Dristor

on 2013/04/05 16:42:10

When I saw the title I thought we will have new world PvP battleground like Wintergrasp or Tol Barad... I'm so dissapointed.

Comment by andrewg

on 2013/04/05 16:52:19

How will this affect alliance players that want to do FOR THE ALLIANCE/DEATH TO THE WARCHIEF!We kinda got screwed out of it when Thrall went to outlands at the end of WOTLK.also wondering about starting zone questlines for orcs and trolls. (i do have a couple horde toons)